Beginning in January, the University of Pennsylvania will roll out a new robotics specialization, an online five-course sequence, via the University’s Online Learning Initiative on the Coursera platform. 

Members of the School of Engineering and Applied Science’s GRASP Laboratory will teach these courses. Instructors include Vijay Kumar, the Nemirovsky Family Dean of Penn Engineering; Dan Lee, the director of the GRASP Lab; and professors Kostas Daniilidis, Daniel Koditschek, Jianbo Shi and Camillo J. Taylor.

“Robots are virtually everywhere in our lives today,” said Kumar. “No longer the stuff of science fiction, robots have evolved into complicated autonomous agents with sophisticated mapping technologies and coordination, capabilities and applications within a wide array of industries.”

Penn’s robotics specialization is designed to provide a comprehensive introduction into the fundamentals of robotics via five four-week courses: Aerial Robotics; Computational Motion Planning; Mobility, Perception and Estimation; Learning; and a final capstone project. The capstone will include a hands-on component and a simulation involving navigation, mobility and manipulation tasks.

“We are really excited to offer this new specialization. The GRASP Lab is at the forefront of advancements in this field,” said Stanton Wortham, faculty director of Penn’s Online Learning Initiative. “Now advanced learners and professionals in the STEM fields from around the globe will have access to our experts via these specialized online courses.”

The total cost of enrollment for the five courses plus the capstone is $265, and financial aid is available.

Penn’s robotics specialization builds on the University’s online courses offered via Coursera and EdX. To date, Penn’s Online Learning Initiative has reached more than 4.5 million learners in nearly 200 countries. Other online courses developed by Penn Engineering via the Online Learning Initiative offered on Coursera include Robert Ghrist's Calculus: Single Variable, now in a 5-part series; Michael Kearns's Networked Life; and Santosh Venkatesh's Probability.

More information on Penn’s new robotics specialization is available here.